Rotary Club of Abbeville honors public servants

Thank you.
Those two words can mean so much, especially when said to a public servant.
On Wednesday, the Rotary Club of Abbeville said its annual thanks to public servants in the city with the Rotary Public Servant of the Year Award presentations.
“We appreciate everything you do for our community,” Rotary Club President John Suire told those in attendance. “This is one way we like to show our appreciation.”
Rotary Club members prepared and served meals to employees from the City of Abbeville, the Abbeville Fire Department, the Abbeville Police Department, and the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office. Along with some good food, the club also presented awards to individuals from each entity.
This year’s honorees include:
• Abbeville City Hall - Sarah Alpough
• Abbeville Public Works - Marie Butaud
• Abbeville Fire Department - Dennis Mouton
• Abbeville Police Department - Sgt. Timothy Bourque
•Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office - Denise Broussard
Alpough, the city’s director of revenue, regulatory codes & permits, thanked the Rotarians for the recognition. Abbeville Mayor Roslyn White thanked Alpough for all that she does.
“We’re learning together,” White said. “This is my first year as mayor. We call it ‘beautiful chaos’, what goes on at city hall. She goes above and beyond to be proactive in improving her department. There isn’t a week that goes by that she doesn’t come to me with a new idea of how to make her department more efficient.”
There’s rarely a slow moment in Butaud’s department. She is the superintendent for the city’s water plant, one of the sections of the city affected most during the hard freeze late last year. Last week, the water plant dealt with a broken clarifier, with Butaud working to navigate the effects of that issue.
“When it’s one thing after another,” said Rotarian Brady Broussard, who serves on the Abbeville City Council, “this employee demonstrates her commitment to every citizen in Abbeville. We’re very proud to give his award to Marie Butaud.”
Butaud is proud of the award, acknowledging that it represents more than one person.
“I would like to thank everyone involved in the Rotary Club,” Butaud said. “I am a firm believer in teamwork makes the dream work. Without a very good team at the water plant and other departments in Abbeville, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. I also want to thank (Public Works Director) Chris Gautreaux, Mayor White, and the City Council for always coming through for us.”
Fire Chief Jude Mire said that Mouton has continually come through for the Abbeville Fire Department.
“He is a great trainer and has the utmost respect for the fire department with the amount of time he puts into it,” Mire said. “He was also inducted by the Louisiana First Responder Christian Association into the Fire Service Hall of Fame this year. So I figured we’d put the cherry on top by giving him this award.”
Mouton shared his thanks.
“I would like to thank God for bringing us all here on this beautiful day,” Mouton said. “I would like to thank my parents, my grandmother, and Shift Three, that is on duty today. We have a great department. We have a great leader, and our assistant chiefs are great.”
Abbeville Chief of Police Mike Hardy said Bourque is a great asset to the police department. Bourque is a detective for the department.
“I’ve got a lot of people who deserve this award,” Hardy said, “but I have a guy who has stepped up. He does a lot of training for a lot of us.”
Denise Broussard has done a lot during her with the sheriff’s office, even if not everyone gets to see her work. Broussard is the dispatch supervisor for the sheriff’s office.
“When you are on the other end of the line,” Sheriff Mike Couvillon said, “and someone says someone is breaking into my house (or some other dire situation), this dispatcher has to be calm, cool, and collected. We are very fortunate that the dispatcher I am talking about has trained all our dispatchers since I took office in 2004. Team VPSO is very proud and thankful to recognize Denise Broussard as our Rotary Public Servant Award recipient.”
Broussard said it was a little different, albeit nice, to be front and center.
“I am honored by this,” she said. “As dispatchers, we are always behind the scenes, so thank you for this.”
Suire said saying thanks is what Wednesday was all about.
“The reason we do what we do,” Suire said, “is to recognize that you all do what you do.”